Earlier issued Alexander P. Janssen Pat. Nos.: 3,946,654 dated Mar. 30, 1976, and entitled COOKING UTENSILS; 4,005,645 dated Feb. 1, 1977, and entitled COOKING UTENSIL ACCESSORIES; and 4,215,629 dated Aug. 5, 1980, and entitled COOKING UTENSILS are hereby incorporated in this specification by reference. Those patents disclose: (1) novel cooking utensils intended to be used with a disposable bag in which the comestibles are contained during the cooking process, and (2) novel accessories for giving conventional utensils the same capabilities as the utensils specifically designed for use with disposable bags.
In cooking comestibles by the techniques described in the foregoing patents, the bag is surrounded by a cooking medium which transfers heat to the contents of the bag during the cooking cycle. The cooking medium will typically be water in the case of stovetop cookery and air for oven cookery.
Cooking in disposable bags as just described has a number of important advantages. First, this permits comestibles to be cooked in their own juices. The natural taste of the food is thereby preserved; and the loss of nutritional values which occurs when foods are cooked in water is avoided, along with the mushy or waterlogged texture which commonly results.
Another virtue is that the utensil is not soiled during the cooking process. Thus, the inconvenience of cleaning the utensil after it is used is eliminated; only rinsing and drying are required.
Furthermore, the bag in which the comestibles are cooked can be used to store them. This is a particular convenience if the bag is stored in a refrigerator container or the like as the latter will not become soiled.
Particularly useful embodiments of the previously disclosed Janssen inventions have an arrangement for detachably securing the lower corners of the bag in place. This produces two important advantages.
First, this keeps the bag from being buoyed upwardly in a liquid cooking medium and, also, permits the cooking medium to more effectively collapse the bag against the comestibles. The result is that the bag is more uniformly surrounded by the cooking medium, producing more efficient and uniform cooking of the comestibles.
Second, by securing the lower end of the bag in place, corners are eliminated; and a rounded, more open shape is given to the lower end of the bag. This significantly facilitates access to the comestibles in the bag and the removal of the comestibles from the bag.
Novel, disposable, comestibles-containing bags for the cooking utensils and accessories just described are disclosed in U.S. Janssen Pat. Nos.: 4,412,482 dated Nov. 1, 1983, and entitled DISPOSABLE COOKING BAGS and 4,499,817 dated Feb. 19, 1985, and also entitled DISPOSABLE COOKING BAGS. Those patents are also hereby incorporated in this specification by reference.
The disposable cooking bags disclosed in the foregoing patents have an open upper end; and the cooking utensil accessories with which they are used have a circular base and a set of concomitantly pivotable, bag-supporting elements that are spaced around the base and attached to the upper edge of the base. The inner ends of the pivotable elements are clipped or otherwise fixed to the upper edge of the disposable bag at intervals therearound. Those elements can consequently be pivoted: (1) upwardly and outwardly to open the upper end of the bag, and (2) downwardly and inwardly to close that end of the bag.
Thus, the upper end of the bag can be opened or spread to facilitate the loading of comestibles into the bag and the removal of cooked comestibles from the bag. And the just-described mechanism allows the upper end of the disposable bag to be closed during the cooking cycle to the extent that a liquid cooking medium surrounding the bag is kept from entering the bag while gases and vapors evolved from the comestibles are allowed to escape. This permits the bag to collapse against its contents, considerably increasing the efficiency with which heat is transferred to the comestibles; it also maximizes the uniformity with which heat is transferred to the comestibles from different directions. Furthermore, by permitting gases and vapors to escape, the tendency of the bag to float is minimized as is the possibility of the bag rupturing due to a build-up of internal pressure.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, those systems for cooking comestibles that are described in the several patents cited above have a significant disadvantage. This is that it is somewhat difficult and time consuming to attach the upper edge of the disposable cooking bag to the inner ends of the pivotable elements with an equal chord--or length of upper bag edge--between adjacent elements. It will be appreciated by those to whom this specification is addressed that approximately equal spacing is required because the upper end of the disposable bag cannot otherwise be fully opened. Consequently, with uneven spacing, difficulty can be experienced in loading comestibles into the bag and in removing cooked comestibles therefrom. Alternatively, the user must tinker with the connections between the bag edge and the elements to which that edge is attached until the spacing is more-or-less equal; and that can waste an appreciable amount of time.